The British GT Championship is heading into the second half of the 2026 season and is visiting the Snetterton Circuit, situated in the rural Norfolk countryside.
The 300 layout is the longest configuration at 2.969 miles, incorporating two prominent straights and various technical corners for a sprint-meeting after British GT’s summer break.
Twenty-four cars across the GT3 and GT4 categories are ready to take on Rounds 5 and 6 following the championship’s outing at Spa-Francorchamps two months ago.
After claiming victory in the Ardennes, Barwell Motorsport’s #78 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 duo Jarrod Waberski and Alex Martin lead both the GT3 outright and Silver-Am championship standings.
Waberski became the first South African driver to win a British GT race in the second Silver-Am driver line-up to win outright since the Silverstone 500 opener; Snetterton will be his first meeting as a Lamborghini GT3 Junior Driver.
Both drivers played an equal role in securing Barwell’s 30th win with Lamborghini, with Martin taking the lead whilst Waberski held it during an intense closing portion of the Spa race.
This time, however, they are under pressure to secure consistent results across both of this weekend’s 1-hour sprints.
Waberski/Martin are on 80 points, and their nearest threat is 11.5 points away and none other than Ben Barnicoat and Morgan Tillbrook in Optimum Motorsport’s #77 McLaren GT3 Evo.
The #77 McLaren pairing had a whirlwind visit to Spa, with Tillbrook forfeiting his second-place grid spot after suspecting an issue with one of his tyres, before beginning a comeback from the back of the GT3 field — followed by extraordinary form by Barnicoat to charge up to the podium.
Their third-place result at Spa, their first win together at Oulton Park’s Race 2, and a strong weekend at Snetterton, could help them close the gap to the #78 Barwell Lamborghini drivers.
Optimum’s other #3 McLaren, driven by Callum Macleod and Mike Price, suffered an alternator issue on the pre-race start grid at Spa, unaided by the exceptionally warm European weather. They hope to turn their first laps of the season since their yacht-racing expedition.
Century Motorsport’s #44 BMW M4 GT3 EVO pairing Jonathon Beeson and Charles Clark are ready to represent the Bavarian brand in the GT3 Silver-Am class.
In the GT3 Silver-Am title fight, Waberski/Martin lead on 107.5 points whilst Beeson/Clark trail on 94.5, though both driver crews remain in contention for outright GT3 championship glory.
Orange Racing by JMH’s Marcus Clutton and Simon Orange finished second last time out at Spa, setting their sights on retaining the GT3 Pro-Am standings lead on 91 points, having finished only ahead of Barnicoat/Tillbrook.
Two-time British GT champion Rob Collard and his #63 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 teammate Hugo Cook, another GT3 Junior driver, faced a setback at Spa when Collard’s times were deleted for track limits.
Collard/Cook cannot afford another heartbreak since the Silverstone 500 fire, which left them without any points, though a third-place finish from last year’s Snetterton event suggests the pair can fight come Sunday.
Beechdean’s Andrew Howard and Aston Martin factory driver Ross Gunn lost their fifth-place finish at Spa due to a post-race penalty issued to Gunn for going unusually slowly and holding the cars behind him during a caution period.
Finishing 11th was less than ideal for their GT3 Pro-Am title pursuit, so a strong outing at Snetterton will help them bounce back; for Howard, it was the site of his last outright British GT victory in 2015.
Kevin Tse and Ben Green lost their first pole position together at Spa to track limits. The #18 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo drivers have shown pace in the races too, so they could be within a shout of victory here with the British-Bahraini team sweeping both wins last year.
Last year’s GT4 class champions, Jack Brown and Marc Warren, took their first outright GT3 podium and GT3 Silver-Am victory at the Oulton sprint meeting. They battled towards the front at Spa, suggesting that the #90 Optimum McLaren drivers could carry their momentum towards more podium appearances, certainly in the GT3 Silver-Am category.
Aaron Walker and 2022 champion Ian Loggie in 2 Seas’s other #15 Mercedes encountered a difficult outing at Spa. Loggie finished fourth during his previous British GT visit here in 2024, and so the duo are looking to capitalise on the Mercedes’s potential.
Orange Racing by JMH’s other #69 McLaren has Steven Lake paired with Luke Garlick, joining Waberski, Walker and Clark as SRO GT Academy candidates.
Rodin Motorsport continues its first British GT campaign with Australian drivers Cameron Campbell and Josh Buchan in the #13 Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo.
In the GT4 category, five Silver Cup and six Pro-Am entries comprise the regular 12-strong field across five manufacturers.
The title fight here is incredibly fierce at the moment, with season debutants and Silverstone 500 winners Innovation Racing leading the outright GT4 championship.
Thomas Holland and Hadley Simpson of the #74 Ginetta G56 GT4 Evo have amassed 79.5 points, putting them just 1.5 points ahead of their rivals at MK Racing, the #21 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 Evo pairing of Will Orton and Jessica Hawkins.
In the Silver Cup honours, it is the other way around with Orton/Hawkins leading on 92.5 points, a slightly larger four-point margin ahead of Holland/Simpson.
Third in both championships are Century Motorsport’s #14 BMW M4 GT4 Evo drivers Jack Collins and Branden Templeton, with 73 points overall and 85 points in Silver.
Toro Verde GT’s #42 Ginetta drivers Luke Shaw and Jack Mitchell, the latter having won Race 1 last year with Josh Miller, lead the GT4 Pro-Am standings on 89.5 points.
Grange Racing by FSR have won the past two races, so Daniel Lavery and his #27 Aston Martin teammate Darren Turner are looking for a hat trick to close the gap from 77.5 points to the Toro Verde duo.
Toro Verde’s other #8 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS CS pairs Ian Duggan and Tom Bradshaw together.
Ronan Pearson and John Hartshorne continue their work in the #97 GBR Stratton Aston Martin from 67 points in the GT4 Pro-Am order.
Fox Motorsport is looking for its moment to shine in a challenging season so far for the #40 Aston Martin shared by James Townsend and Joe Wheeler, as West Surrey Racing returns to Snetterton for the first time since its most recent BTCC outing there in May.
Four-time BTCC champion Colin Turkington has 10 BTCC race wins at Snetterton, seven of which were with WSR, with whom he has been racing with in GT4 alongside three-time FIA European Historic Rally champion Ernie Graham, in the #61 BMW.
George Gamble joins Collard, Pearson and Turkington on the grid as former BTCC drivers. Gamble has only made one previous British GT appearance back in 2017 at Rockingham, where he shared a Century Motorsport-run Ginetta G55 GT4 with Anna Walewska.
He joins Josh Stanton in Optimum Motorsport’s #59 McLaren Artura GT4, who claimed a Silver class win at Spa and redeemed himself after his Oulton Race 1 accident.
Paddock Motorsport runs the other #84 McLaren, also entered in Silver, with Revie Lake and Blake Angliss keen to put their Spa retirement behind them in the heat and sunshine this weekend.
Qualifying will take place on Saturday 15 August at 15:30 local time, and the pair of 1-hour races commence on Sunday 16 August at 11:35 and 16:00.
Images courtesy of SRO/JEP
